By Henry Clay Allen
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
Dr Henry Clay Allen
Bacillary emulsion * Bacillinum Burnett * Bacillinum testium * Carcinosinum * Coqueluchinum * Ergotinum * Hipozæninum * Influenzinum * Melitagrinum * Morbillinum * Nectrianinum * Parotidinum * Pestinum * Scarlatininum * Scirrhinum * Serum Marmorek * Tuberculin (birds) * Tuberculin (Bovine) * Tuberculin Koch (old) * Tuberculin Koch (new - T. R.) * Tuberculous Bouillon
THE BACILLARY EMULSION.(pulverized bacilli in glycerin and water)
Hallock (Hahn. Monthly, February, 1912) has found that "the bacillary emulsion" in dilutions produces the best results in patients who are without fever, and whose general condition is good. A temperature up to 99 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Centigrade) is not a contra-indication ; but if the temperature is higher, we must expect no effect from the tuberculin until the acute symptoms have disappeared.
BACILLINUM OF COMPTON BURNETT.
Dr James Comptom Burnett
The idea of prescribing for phthisical patients the sputum of anyone suffering from the same disease is old.
In 1638, Robert Fludd, a professor of anatomy, advised, in a treatise, the following : Sputum rejectum a pulmonico post debitam præparationem curat phthisin (Sputum rejected from the lungs, after its proper preparation, cures phthisis).
Martino, a Portuguese homopathic physician, who resided in Rio, and died in 1854, favored tubercina before Compton Burnett.
In 1874, Swan, a New York homopath, triturated, with sugar of milk, the sputum of a tuberculous patient, and called this substance Tuberculinum.
Some years later Burnett (a homopathic physician of London) prepared his Bacillinum, by triturating in alcohol a portion of lung taken from a typical tuberculous patient in a manner so as to include the walls of a tuberculous cavity with their adjacent tissues, in a word, the bacilli, debris, ptomaines and tubercles of all kinds.
In his book, "The new cure of consumption by its own virus," 2nd edition, 1892, Burnett made the following recommendations :
1st. The virus must be administered by mouth, in what the homopaths call high potencies.
The lower dilutions are inadmissible.
"I have never used it below the thirtieth centesimal strength," says the author, "and when I fear starting up constitutional troubles, I never go below the 100th centesimal dilution."
2nd. The doses must not be administered too frequently ; one dose each six or ten days is my rule in practice.
3rd. In a certain stage of consumption the virus no longer benefits the case, but I have not been able to determine the exact period at which it ceases to act curatively.
It is neither the chronicity nor the length of continuance of the phthisis, but its degree of intensity which determines our point.
According to Rovirata (Hom. practica of Barcelona, May, 1912) Bacillinum acts best in acute cases : its chronic equivalent is Psorinum.
The characteristic of Bacillinum is its rapid action.
If it does not act at once, there is little to be expected from it.
As a rule, it is efficacious in simple, in non-complicated and in not too advanced cases of pulmonary phthisis.
In the tuberculous process there are numerous complications that require special treatment, as alcoholism, syphilis, malaria, anæmia, dyspepsia, and vaccinosis.
An important consideration in the administration of Bacillinum is to employ it in infrequent doses.
Mookerjee thinks that Bacillinum has been curative in many cases of doubtful nature ; that sometimes it benefits the condition of the lungs, solely by relieving the congestion of these organs and thus facilitating the action of other remedies.
Bacillinum 30th does not cure advanced phthisis, but one or two doses a week notably relieve the most alarming and the most painful symptoms, as the cough, night sweats and fever (Hom. Envoy).
A detailed study of Bacillinum may be found on page 155, in the homeotherapy of the tuberculins.
A nosode prepared from tuberculous testicle.
Inguinal glands, disease of.
Mesenteric glands, disease of.
Testicles, tubercle of.
This preparation has been used by Burnett as having a more direct relation to the lower half of the body than the pulmonary Bacillinum. My own experience confirms the correctness of this inference ; but it must not be supposed that Bac. test. does not act in pulmonary cases, or Vice versa.
The nosode of Carcinoma.
This is one of the principal nosodes of cancer, and is one of Dr. Burnett's preparations. I use it more frequently than any other as a diathesic remedy. Burnett had a number of different cancer preparations, and followed his instinct largely in their use and selection. In addition to Scirrhinum, of which I have given an account in the Dictionary, he had a preparation which he named Durum (a Latinised form of Scirrhinum, as I take it). This he used in treating depraved inherited conditions in children, such as infantile self-abuse, with good effects, which I have confirmed. I have met with a suicidal tendency in several cancer patients, so that the cancer nosodes may be appropriate in many mental cases, especially where the heredity points that way.
Compare : Compare Scirrhinum.
This is one of Dr. Burnett's nosodes, used by him in cases of hæmorrhage and obtained, as I conclude, from a case of hæmorrhage in a patient suffering from fibrous tumour, possibly with malignant elements. At any rate, I have found it of great value in controlling uterine hæmorrhage, whether connected with fibrous growth or not. I have used it in the 30th upwards, giving one or two doses weekly.
Compare : The cancer nosodes : in fibrous tumours and uterine hæmorrhages. Thlaspi b. p., Fraxin., Hydrastis and its alkaloids.
Pertussin. The nosode of Whooping-cough.
In all cases of whooping-cough suspected or defined I give the remedy in the 30th attenuation every four hours as a matter of routine, and as a rule it quickly assumes control of the case and does all that is necessary. In my experience it agrees well with all other whooping-cough remedies, and when their specific indications appear I give them also in alternation, or else alone.
Compare : Bell., Cocc. c., Coral. r., Dros., etc.
Coryza with hacking cough.
Intense flushing with cough.
Itching of the palate on lying down at night.
Intense tickling in throat causing cough.
Vomiting or nausea at end of cough.
Respiratory Organs :
Dyspna with cough.
Sobbing or sighing at end of cough.
Strangling sensation with cough on waking.
Cough provoked by intense tickling in throat - fauces or trachea.
Hacking cough ; with coryza.
Deep-sounding croupy cough.
Spasmodic choking cough.
Spasmodic cough with intense flushing of face.
Cough in frequently repeated paroxysms.
Stinging pain in or on the chest with cough.
Ergotin. The alkaloid of Secale cornutum, Ergot of rye. Trituration.
Heart, paralysis of.
Sphincters, paralysis of.
Ergotin is best known by its physiological use as a hæmostatic in uterine and pulmonary hæmorrhages. It acts by causing contraction of the arterioles, and its effect is produced most promptly when it is administered by subcutaneous injection. Its homopathic uses are in the main identical with those of Secale, but Ergotin will sometimes succeed when Secale fails. Secale, like Phosph., has "wide-open anus" in its symptomatology.
Mallein, Glanderin, Farcin. The nosode of glanders of farcy. (The disease is called "Glanders" when the catarrhal symptoms are pronounced : "Farcy," when these are not noticeable, the skin being chiefly affected, with deposits in the lungs. Homopathic preparations of both have been made. Those made from Farcy are distinguished by the letter "F.") Triturations of sugar of milk saturated with the virus.
Nasal cartilages, ulceration of.
Phlegmasia alba dolens.
Of recent years Mallein, a toxin prepared from glanders, has taken an important place in veterinary practice of the old school as a test injection for deciding whether a horse suspected of glanders actually has the disease or not. If the horse reacts it is concluded there is glanders. In a number of cases in which animals have reacted to the first injections, a repetition of the "test" has failed to elicit reaction, thus proving that Mallein is curative as well as diagnostic (H. W., xxxv. 149). The nosode has been used by homopaths, at the suggestion of Garth Wilkinson, on the phenomena of the disease as guides, and in a large number of cases involving low forms of suppuration and catarrh, malignant ulcerations and swellings, abscesses and enlarged glands ; and also in conditions similar in kind, but less in severity. I have used it with excellent effect in cases of inveterate nasal catarrh and of glandular enlargement. The nasal affection may go on to Ozæna, ulceration of nasal cartilages and bones.
Glanders in the horse affects the lungs no less than the upper respiratory tract, causing coughs and disseminated ulcerations and deposits throughout the lungs.
It has cured papules and ulcerations in frontal sinuses, pharynx, larynx, and trachæa ; hoarseness ; old cases of bronchitis, especially in old persons where suffocation from excessive secretion seemed imminent. Bronchial asthma. Whooping-cough. A cough commencing at Christmas and lasting till June has been cured by it.
Compare : Bacillin., Avi., Luet., Variol.
The Serpent poisons, Aurum, Cadm. s., Kali b., Hepar, Psorin.
Fainting turns with headache.
Inflammation of membranes of brain.
Purulent collections between bones of skull and dura mater.
Scattered abscesses in brain substance.
Tubercles may appear in periosteum of skull, in dura mater in plexus choroides.
A diffused myelitis malleosa, attributable to infiltration.
Bones of skull and face (frontal most) necrosed.
Hair loses its glisten.
Eyes full of tears or slime.
Pupils dilated, with collapse.
Papules on choroid coat of eye.
Tinkling sounds in ears.
Hoarse and deaf before fatal termination.
Inflammation of parotid gland.
Swelling and redness of nose and adjacent parts, with severe pain.
Catarrh : nose inflamed with thick and tinged defluxion ; tonsils swollen, fauces gorged.
Discharge : often one-sided, albuminous, tough, viscous, discolored, gray, greenish, even bloody and offensive ; acrid, corroding.
Nose and mouth ulcerated.
Cartilages of nose become exposed and necrosed, septum, vomer, and palate bone disorganized.
Caries of nasal bones.
Checks the liability to catarrhal affection.
Maxillary gland swollen, like a distinct ball of sausage, firmly attached to the maxilla, uneven, rugged, tuberculated, mostly painless, burning only at times.
Submaxillary and sublingual glands swollen and painful at times ; abscesses are formed which open externally.
Teeth and Gums :
Gums show a tendency to bleed.
Gums covered with a black, sooty deposit.
Act of speaking difficult.
Tongue dry, thickly covered with a black, sooty deposit.
Ulcers appear in mouth.
Buccal passages filled with tenacious lymph and mucus.
Odour of breath putrid.
Scrofulous swelling of left parotid gland in a child.
Ulcerations upon velum of palate.
Swollen tonsils closing posterior channels.
Upon mucous membrane of pharynx ecchymoses, redness, swelling, eruptions, and foul ulcers.
Appetite and Stomach :
Thirst excessive, esp. with diarrha.
Gastro-intestinal catarrh ; loss of appetite, indigestion, constipation ; in later stage, Diarrha.
Liver greatly enlarged, often showing signs of fatty degeneration.
Hepatitis with gangrenous and ulcerative inflammation of gall-ducts.
Spleen enlarged, filled with blood ; softened and liquefied, of a greyish or dark colour ; wedge-shaped abscess in spleen.
Inguinal glands swollen.
Colliquative diarrha with a general cachexia and exhaustion precede the fatal termination.
Urinary Organs :
Tubercles and abscesses in kidneys.
Albumen in urine, also leucine and tyrosine.
Male Sexual Organs :
Tubercles and abscesses ; of glans penis ; of testicles ; in kidneys.
Female Sexual Organs :
Slimy discharge from vagina.
Respiratory Organs :
Papules and ulcerations in frontal sinuses, pharynx - Larynx, and trachea.
Hoarseness from the altered condition of larynx.
Bronchitis : in the worst forms ; esp. in elderly persons ; where suffocation from excessive secretion is imminent.
Noisy breathing ; loud snoring respiration before fatal termination ; breath fetid.
Cough and obstructed respiration, resulting from cicatricial contraction of mucous membrane of nose and larynx ; had lasted eleven years ; patient presented picture of decided cachexia.
Respiration at first partially impeded.
Cough commenced at Christmas and lasted till June.
Patients cough severely and expectorate profusely, sputa usually bearing a strong resemblance to the discharge from the nostrils.
Tubercles, size of millet seed to a pea, of a grey, yellowish, or reddish colour.
Given in phthisis, it diminishes expectoration, abates constantly recurring aggravations of inflammation, and checks liability to catarrhal affections.
Lung disease of Cattle (F.).
Pulse very frequent and small in volume, 110 to 120°F ; in some cases retarded.
Obscure pain in limbs, most in muscles and joints.
Upper Limbs :
With sore finger, swelling of arm, phlegmonous and erysipelatous with pustules and ulcers.
Lower Limbs :
Psoas and lumbar abscesses (F) - Old bad legs (ulcers).
Anasarca of lower limbs (F).
Weakness, fatigue, general discomfort ; they give up their business.
General prostration with considerable emaciation.
Tissues ; Numerous ecchymoses in internal organs ; inflammation of lymphatic vessels and swelling of glands ; phlegmasia alba dolens.
Erythema, erysipelatous or phlegmonous processes, abscesses, pustules, and ulcers are spread so extensively over surface of body that hardly any part remains free.
Malignant erysipelas, particularly if attended by large formations of pus, and destruction of parts.
Confluent small pox.
Ulcers have no disposition to heal, livid appearance.
Insomnia and great restlessness.
Chills and fever in cases of abscesses and ulcers.
Skin becomes cool with collapse.
Fever when a series of abscesses follow in rapid succession.
May be tried in scarlatina, where odour of breath is putrid, buccal passages filled with tenacious lymph and mucus, tonsils greatly swollen.
The nosode of Influenza.
The nosode of influenza has with many practitioners taken the place of Baptisia as the routine remedy in epidemics. It may be given in the 12th or 30th potency, either in the form of tincture, pilules, or discs. When "colds" appear in a family let all those who are unaffected take Arsen. 3 thrice daily, and let the patients take Influ. 30 every hour or two. This generally prevents the spread of the trouble and clears up the "colds", whether they are of the influenza type or not. Influenza has the property of developing old troubles, and thus it takes an infinite variety of forms in different persons, so that Influ., need not be expected to cure all cases unaided, or indeed, to be appropriate to every case.
I find Influ. compatible with Act. r., Ars., Bell., Bry., Hep., Merc., and many others.
Dr Thomas Skinner
The nosode of Eczema capitis. Dr. Skinner's Fluxional Centesimal attenuations.
Dr. Skinner has given a brief account of this nosode, introduced by him, in H. W., xvii. 89. He prepared it from the lymph and blood of a case of eczema capitis. Very severe cases were cured with Melit. c. m. (F. C.) given in single doses at considerable intervals. In one case there was an initial aggravation.
The nosode of Measles.
Ear, affection of.
Eye, affections of.
Skin, affections of.
The well-known symptoms which characterize an attack of measles may be taken as guides for its homopathic use. Its chief use hitherto has been as a prophylactic against infection, and to clear up after-effects of an attack. As the measles poison has a great affinity for the mucous passages, the eyes, the ears and the respiratory mucous membranes, Morbil, may be used in such cases like any other homopathic remedy, when the symptoms correspond.
Use 30 dilution 8 or 10 globules in 6 oz. of water a dessert-spoonful every 2 hours, as a prophylactic, a dose twice or thrice daily.
Complementary : Bell. Compare : Puls., Hep., Merc., Sul.
Nosode of cancer of trees (Nectria ditissima). Dilution. Trituration of the parasite.
Nectrianinum is a clear liquid of a yellowish brown hue which was prepared by Bra and Chaussé (Med. Rev. of Rev., April, 1900, quoted H. M., xxxv. 533) as follows : Injected into healthy animals in 5 c. c. doses several times a week no result is observed. In cancerous men and animals, on the contrary, the injections cause a rise of temperature in from two to four hours of 1° to 3°. If the dose is increased the hyperthermia is accompanied by chills, sensation of cold, accelerated pulse, palpitation, headache, thirst. The crisis terminates after some hours in polyuria and profound sleep. In very advanced cancer reaction may not occur. In a summary of the results the observers say that Nectrianinum has caused : "Arrest or diminution of hæmorrhages ; suppression of fetid discharges ; a tendency at times to epidermisation of the neoplasm with a corresponding well-defined arrest in its evolution." The patients were < when treatment was discontinued and > when it was resumed. A maximum of 4 c. c. per day was never exceeded.
Compare : Scirrh., Epitheliomin.
The nosode of Mumps.
Parotidinum has been used as a prophylactic against infection by mumps. In this instance it is generally given in the 6th or 30th two or three times a day to those exposed to infection. In the disease itself it may be given every four hours, either by itself or alternated with other indicated remedies. The well-known complications which sometimes occur with mumps, cerebral inflammation and orchitis suggest its possible use in these conditions.
Compare : Merc.
Plaguinum. Nosode of Plague. Trituration of the virus.
The prophylaxis and treatment of plague with injections of more or less modified virus of plague by old school practitioners affords evidence that the nosode of plague is available, like other nosodes, for the treatment of cases of the disease from which it is derived.
The nosode of Scarlatina or Scarlet Fever.
Scarlatinin has been used, like other nosodes, for the prevention and for cure of the disease from which it takes origin. But its well-known affinity for the skin, throat and kidneys suggests its applicability for affections of those organs.
Bell. is the nearest analogue and should be its antidote, and the various Mercuries come next.
Compare also : Apis, Arsen., Rhus, Morbillin, Diphtherinum.
Carcinominum. The nosode of Scirrhous Cancer. Trituration.
Breast, cancer of.
Burnett is my authority for this nosode. He proved it on himself, and produced "a tremendous sinking at the navel," which he regarded as a keynote for its use. Scirrh, has aided the cure of many cases of breast tumour in Burnett's hands. With it he cured a man of hard glands which appeared on the left side of the neck after other glands had been removed by the patient's brother, a surgeon. Hæmorrhages and varicosis of legs and feet, with purple points, have also been cured by Burnett with Scirrh. A patient to whom Burnett had given Scirrh. mentioned to him that it had caused the passage of an enormous number of threadworms. On this hint Burnett gave it with great success in many cases of this troublesome complaint ; and I have verified this experience. In inveterate cases where Cina and Teucr. have given little relief, Scirrh. has wrought a great change for the better. The time of < Scirrh. is from 5 to 6 P. M., and irregularly on through the night.
THE DILUTE SERUM OF MARMOREK.
Dr Léon Vannier
We are here concerned with his antituberculous, not with his antisteptococcic, serum. Marmorek does not believe in a tuberculous infection ; for him there is only an intoxication, and it is only antitoxins that he has tried to manufacture. Without discussing here the advantages or disadvantages of this serum in the doses advised by the author, and without speaking of the accidents that the remedy has caused through its excessive strength in hypodermic injection (accidents that suggest its employment per rectum), I will begin at once with that side of the question which interests us : the employment of the serum in homopathic doses, diluted to the 6th, 10th, or 30th centesimal attenuation, and administered by mouth. Nebel was the first to advise the serum in medium homopathic doses. For five years, Leon Vannier, upon the advice of Nebel, has employed this dilute serum, and he has been able to collect 530 observations grouped by him into two categories, the tuberculinics (those predisposed), and the tuberculous. He places in connection with the group of tuberculinics certain conditions which, by a few modern authors, would be considered prodromes of tuberculosis, a classification which suggests the similarity between tuberculinics and the pre-tuberculous or good subjects for tuberculosis. According to Vannier, tuberculinics present themselves under various aspects ; 1st. the febrile (febrile without apparent reason) ; 2nd. persons subject to colds (persons who have cold after cold, and coryza after coryza during the winter) ; 3rd. dental patients (persons predisposed to tuberculous, said he, seem to make a rendezvous of the dentist's chair) ; 4th. constipated persons ; 5th. cardiac patients (especially functional heart disease). All these types of intoxicated persons are benefited by one or more doses of the diluted serum of Marmorek (l'Homopathie française, May, 1912). Vannier passes then to the truly tuberculous. The serum of Marmorek, being essentially an antitoxic serum, suits the pulmonary tuberculous, who, notwithstanding the gravity or extent of their lesion, have poor resistance. Vannier has always observed a rapid improvement in the general condition, and a progressive increase in the weight of those under the influence of the diluted serum ; but he has remarked that on the first, and especially on the second day following the absorption of the serum, there appeared pains in the apex of the lungs, an obstinate cough, and a state of unaccountable fatigue. Then there is a return to normal conditions. This series of transient aggravations prepares the way for a progressive improvement. Everything continues as if there existed a truly negative period, similar to that caused by the vaccines, this negative period being followed by a positive condition much more prolonged, and in the latter the cure is completed.
Dr Antoine Nebel
This is also the opinion of Nebel. In osseous tuberculosis the serum has always brought a considerable improvement of the pains (clinical observations of Pott's disease and spina ventosa), and with this improvement the rapid diminution and even the complete disappearance of the violet discoloration so characteristic of tuberculous fistulæ. When there is pus, the discharge for the first few days is more abundant and then gradually diminishes. Two cases of peritoneal tuberculosis have been successfully treated with the serum, one by Vannier, the other by Mondain. Three cases of tuberculosis of the urinary tract were cured with the diluted serum (l'Homopathie française, April, 1912). Tuberculous meningitis ; one favorable case by Renaud-Badet.
Regarding a case of peritoneal tuberculosis, Mondain says : "If the case is acute, or the organism too much depressed, we furnish to the cells in peril the prepared antibodies by administering a dilution of the antituberculous serum of Marmorek ; later, when the general condition has sufficiently recovered so as to easily allow the patient to manufacture his own antibodies, we may, after studying his constitution, his temperament, and his symptoms, make a choice of the most suitable tuberculin, both to complete the cure and to effect immunization. Is not this method of isopathic protection the best ? It is the one that nature herself employs in her spontaneous cures. We, faithful servants of nature, only imitate and assist her."
or tuberculin of birds.
It was tried in human tuberculosis by Pierre Jousset, nearly twenty years ago. Although the patients requested the remedy, Jousset, Sr., has never confirmed any effects in human tuberculosis. I have, in speaking on page 161 of the homotherapy of the tuberculins, insisted especially upon the value of Aviare in the non-tuberculous diseases of the respiratory organs. According to José Galard, Aviare, in tuberculosis, is especially indicated when the symptoms are acute and of such a nature that they may develop into broncho-pneumonia, Wheeler, also, prefers Aviare in acute cases, but especially in the exacerbations of chronic pulmonary affections with profuse expectoration. His favorite dilution is the 100th, repeated every twenty-four or forty-eight hours, until improvement appears. An enthusiastic student in Allentown, a Mr. Schmid, made a very good proving ; and one of our nearest friends (an experienced prover, a former engraver, Bechlert, by name, at that time a paralyzed man) persuaded all his acquaintances, a dozen of women and girls, and some boys, to prove the higher preparations. None of his provers knew anything of the origin of the drug, and they were examined every day with great care, according to the advice of Hahnemann.
or tuberculin of animals (cattle).
It's prepared in homopathic attenuations, in London, by Epps and Nelson. Moir and Hay think that, in accordance with what they have seen of its use, the bovine tuberculin gives better results than does the ordinary human tuberculin. According to Ord, an occasional dose of bovine tuberculin in the 30th is undoubtedly useful to those who have been treated by the old method of frequent doses of ordinary tuberculin, but Ord has never been successful in completely curing a case by bovine tuberculin only. Bishop has mentioned the necessity, when the condition remains stationary, of changing the human tuberculin for the bovine.
THE OLD TUBERCULIN OF KOCH.
A splendid article of Harlan Wells', entitled "A practical and favorable method of treating pulmonary tuberculosis with tuberculin," has appeared in the Journal of the American Institute of Homopathy, February, 1912. Wells employed the old tuberculin of Koch in hypodermic injection. Wells always commenced the treatment with the 6th decimal dilution. If the patient was an adult, and if no reaction followed the first dose, he gave one-tenth of a cubic centimeter of the 5th decimal. He then increased the dose one-tenth cubic centimeter at each injection, until it reached the 3x dilution. If a reaction followed, Wells waited that everything might be calm, and then resumed the dilution above the one that caused the reaction. Concerning the intervals between the injections, he generally gave two injections a week till the third week. It will take at least two or three moths to judge if the treatment has proved of any permanent benefit.
Wells cites many cases where the bacilli disappeared from the sputum. He explains the favorable action of the tuberculin in about the usual manner, namely, that it stimulates the cells of the body, enabling them to form agglutinins, opsonins, and other substances related to the immunizing process. In a patient whose nutrition is poor, and who is functionally disordered, the organism is not in condition to respond to the stimulative action of tuberculin, consequently the tissue cells cannot form immunizing substances.
In the opinion of Moll, of Brixen, tuberculin is not only a specific for pulmonary tuberculosis but it is also a good remedy for bony suppurations, especially in cases that have been rebellious to other remedies. In these conditions we must employ only the high dilutions.
The 60th decimal gives prompt reactions. Moll cites many favorable cases in which he used the 250th decimal dilution.
Lambert makes frequent use of Tuberculinum 200th, one dose every week ; the 30th generally producing aggravations (British Hom. Society). It has been remarked that homopaths speak as often of aggravations with the high dilutions as with the low. Do not the phenomena of anaphylaxis occur more commonly as a result of small quantities ? Yet medicinal aggravations are less pronounced in homopathic than in physiological doses, weak as the latter may be.
In a brochure entitled The Modern Treatment of Tuberculosis Barcelona, 1907, Olive y Gros states that he employs the tuberculin of Koch generally in the 200th, residual tuberculin in the 200th, dialyzed tuberculin in the 100th, the filtered bouillon of Denys in the 200th, chloroformed tuberculin in the 100th, the serum of Marmorek in the 30th, the serum of Ferran in the 12th, and Aviaire in the 100th.
THE NEW TUBERCULIN OF KOCH
(Tuberculin T. R.)
The new tuberculin of Koch, as well as the emulsions and filtrations, must according to Trudeau, be preferred, because with it the tendency to febrile reaction is less than is the case with the old tuberculin. Jager, of Hildesheim, employs the new tuberculin in the 6th and 7th decimal, by mouth. Scheidegger, of Aarau, Switzerland, has had the best success with the T. R. (residual tuberculin) in low dilutions, administered at long intervals, in the early stages of the disease.
THE FILTERED TUBERCULOUS BOUILLON.
Humeau and Ravet, of Havre, have published lately the results of their practice (Art médical, January, 1912, and Archives médico-chirurgicales de Normandie, March, 1912).
These physicians are using the tuberculin of Denys, in true homopathic doses, either hypodermically or by mouth.
Humeau and Ravet never commence lower than the ninth decimal, and often much higher.
Once the initial dose is fixed, 9th, 12th, or sometimes the 15th decimal (20th in one case), the treatment is continued by three injections a week, until the 3x dilution is reached. If there is no reaction, these doses are of 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc., of each solution. After 9/10 of one dilution, they pass to the next lower decimal dilution, so as to have a regular and constant progression. When a reaction is produced, it is an invariable rule to suspend all further injections, until the disappearance of all reactionary phenomena. The custom of Humeau and Ravet is, even at the beginning, to avoid aggravations, they never begin at once with tuberculin. In treating a case of pulmonary tuberculosis the patient is first given hygienic treatment, more or less severe, sometimes rest in bed, the individual requirements governing each case. The patient's temperature is taken, he is given, according to the indications, an internal remedy, and meanwhile, before the injection of tuberculin, is given close study.
This minute knowledge of the patient is necessary for fixing the initial dose, and the character of the further specific treatment. The dose, that is, the intensity of the excitation, must be such that the affection will take on a more acute form during which, temporarily, the patient will be weakened. Its action, to be effectual, however must not pass beyond the successful reactionary struggle of which the organism of the patient is capable. Humeau and Ravet have seen the great majority of their curable patients obtain from the treatment, amelioration and even complete cure ; but besides these results they have had, also, cases where the same remedy in widely different dosage, did not appear to act. They were unable to judge in advance the favorable or unfavorable reaction. In another series of tuberculous cases these physicians have adhered to one and the same dilution satisfactorily, without increasing the dose.
Dr Pierre Jousset
P. Jousset gives the filtered tuberculous bouillon of Denys successfully in the 6th, 10th, and 12th decimal. As soon as a reaction appears, he prefers to suspend the injections entirely rather than continue with weaker doses. In another article, collaborated with G. Proust (Art médical, Nov. 1907), Jousset's opinion, from an experience with more than forty phthisical patients, was that the bouillon of Denys, with a careful technique, is entirely inoffensive, and that its beneficial influence is shown by the constitutional condition, the febrile movement, and even by the condition of the pulmonary lesion. Jousset remarks that, in this treatment, the cure is assured when the injections of pure filtered bouillon do not produce an increase in temperature.
In such case, and then only, we must discontinue the treatment.
Tuinzing uses the 7th and 8th decimals.
Rankin, in a sanatorium, employed doses from 1/1000 of a milligram to 10 milligrams.
I have personally given, by mouth, the tuberculin of Denys in the form of globules saturated with the high dilutions, the 100th, the 200th and the 500th centesimal. As extreme as these dilutions appear, it is yet with them that I have in advanced cases most frequently and most easily arrested the progress of the disease : I refer to cavities.
Again, as extraordinary as may seem what I am about to say, these tuberculous cavities are not protected from medicinal aggravations, not even against these imperceptible doses that old school physicians have termed quackery. To deal with the theory of attenuations in this cursory manner is vain, when we have examined from every angle, and confirmed the facts. I have often arrested, temporarily, with these high dilutions, the development of a progressive tuberculosis characterized by a persistence of the fever (but not the fever having great fluctuations, from streptococci or acute pneumococcal infection), an incessant cough, abundant expectoration, pulmonary perituberculous congestion, and anorexia. I give one single dose of ten globules of the 100th, 200th, or 500th ; in the beginning I repeat the dose every three to eight days, till an improvement takes place (requiring sometimes only two or three doses). As long as the improvement continues we must not renew the dose. I have thus been able to lengthen the intervals between the doses, from eight to twenty-one days, and from fifteen days to a month. The tuberculous quiescence may last many months. In a patient who appeared unusually improved and who had only a slight expectoration in the morning, I had this expectoration examined : it still contained a number of the bacilli of Koch, and some pneumococci. Here, then, was a case of temporary cessation of perituberculous congestion all about the tuberculous faci, without a cure of the tuberculosis. I have at present among my patients a young girl with a cavity in which the tuberculous process progressed rapidly, and who during her paroxysms of coughing vomited almost incessantly. For the past year and a half this patient, taking Denys' 500th, has kept fairly well. The cough having almost left her, the poor girl announces to me that she is cured. No class of persons exceeds the tuberculous in optimism ! Temporary as the ameliorations are, they constitute nevertheless, a real progress in tuberculinotherapy, and the above method of treatment far excels the sedative syrups, which latter have a depressing effect, excels equally Creosote, which ruins the stomach, and superalimentation, which occasions enteritis. There may, of course, be some advantage in employing, during the interval of the doses, any accessory measure which may assist in bringing about a favorable result. But the two cases that I have cited, and also others, have been treated solely by these attenuated doses of Denys', without the employment of any adjuvants. Many of the patients were too poor to undergo expense. The tuberculin of Denys' in high dilution is also used by Nebel, Vannier, Chiron, and others.
Copyright © Sylvain Cazalet 2003